High-energy Emission Component, Population, and Contribution to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background of Gamma-Ray-emitting Radio Galaxies
Abstract
In this study, we systematically studied the X-ray to GeV gamma-ray spectra of 61 Fermi Large Area Telescope detected radio galaxies. We found an anticorrelation between peak frequency and peak luminosity in the high-energy spectral component of radio galaxies, similar to blazars. With this sample, we also constructed a gamma-ray luminosity function (GLF) of gamma-ray-loud radio galaxies. We found that blazar-like GLF shapes can reproduce their redshift and luminosity distribution, but the log N-log S relation prefers models with more low-z radio galaxies. Utilizing our latest GLF, the contribution of radio galaxies to the extragalactic gamma-ray background is found to be 1%-10%. We further investigated the nature of gamma-ray-loud radio galaxies. Compared to radio or X-ray flux-limited radio galaxy samples, the gamma-ray-selected sample tends to lack high radio power galaxies like FR II radio galaxies. We also found that only ~10% of radio galaxies are GeV gamma-ray loud. Radio galaxies may contribute to the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background comparable to blazars if gamma-ray-quiet radio galaxies have X-ray to gamma-ray spectra like Cen A, with a small gamma-ray-to-X-ray flux ratio.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 2022
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/ac6acb
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2204.14019
- Bibcode:
- 2022ApJ...931..138F
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxy jets;
- 601;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- ApJ accepted, 45 pages, 11 figures